Synopsis

Life gets crazy for Hakufu when she takes on a pupil that acts just like her! A tournament between the school heads start, but due to Hakufu's negligence, her pupil ends up taking her place. The tournament isn't what it seems, and the girls find themselves in the middle of a plot to take over the clans.

A great concept, but really bad delivery. If your a pervert you will enjoy this serious because that is all it really is. It is a flash show of panties and titties galore. The story is not bad but as you follow along through the series you lose interest.

Before reading please note that this is the latest season as of 2010, if you did not watch the previous seasons I highly suggest that you do so.

Right off the bat flashbacks. So if you did choose to watch this season first you will be slightly confused since there are a lot of flashbacks and references to past events. While it may be possible to just watch this series and enjoy it because of all the fan service, that alone does not make this story line good. From beginning to end, watching each characters progression through a life that they are forced
to live in because to the magatama that has been passed down to them. Now that is where the story is. Each persons magatama represents a famous person from a war that happened long ago. While that does have a very big influence on how each characters act, that is not entirely the case in this season. This season try's to point everyone in the direction that you do not have to be tied down to the fate of your own magatama.

Wait... what artwork? The only thing that you notice in this anime are the girls boobs. Strategically ripped/torn clothing. I honestly can't remember but I am pretty sure that not one girl wears a bra, so every fight you see boobs. This is in my opinion the biggest selling point of this anime. You most likely watched this anime because you wanted to see half naked girls fighting each other.

Opening song is decently catchy. It is slightly fast paced to match the fact that a fighting anime is about to start. Other than that nothing much to say about the sounds, unless you want to count the moans ands groans that the girls make. ^_^

Information about characters are based on the persons magatama. Based on history from the past that information is taken into account in the present day to predict what may happen. Apparently everyone is based on a book called the three kingdoms. I don't know if the book is real or not, and honestly I don't care. Unless the book has pictures of boobs on every page I am not interested.

While the story is not the best ever, it is very entertaining to watch. Best part about this series are the fight scenes. Every single fight you see boobs left and right. It just puzzles me that the fight can be so intense that clothes are ripping everywhere, but panties seem to be indestructible. I mean come on just go all the way... but then again if that happened this anime could easily turn into a hentai. Either one would have been fine by me but whatever.
If you are the kind of person that likes to have a good story behind the anime that you watch you might want to stay away from this one, unless you like boobs. Then by all means watch this anime.

So, I respect fanservice. Ikkitousen has a lot of fanservice. But oh my god, it is absolutely not worth it.

This season, and most of the series, is a nightmare. The art is about the only competent feature. The plot is also so poor. In the end, you find yourself wondering what the point of all their bullshit is, other than simply being compelled via destiny. That is not a plot you grow attached to. The characters are not diverse at all and their names are completely bland and hard to memorize. There are scenes where two characters refer to the same person, by completely different
names within the same 10 seconds. This absolutely boiled my blood. This mixture of characters that are difficult to distinguish and a uninspiring plot crushes the story and leaves you caring for nothing. I'm sorry, but do not waste your time here. Actually, if you want a decent Ikkitousen experience, watch season 3 instead.

First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.
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Somewhat review for the whole franchise. By somewhat I mean a minimally, as I watched previous seasons many years ago.

✦Story
The whole story I'll sum up in a following way. Story is basically about martial artists who use power of historical and legendarry warriors. That's all you need. There is plenty of character development and depth to a story whilst staying now and then simple as fodder for fights. Story I didn't mind for the most times, it was fun to know about various powers and cause of
their fights. Probably story presentation wise only complaint I have and a big complaint as it's something I despise in general, are they rapey themes.

✦Art&Sound
Music and OST is quite enjoyable and hype at times. So don't have much complaint for the sound part, it's good, but nothing amazing.

As for art I have a quite a specific complaint about it. It's a fanservice anime obviously, but usually with fanservice you either get cute fanservice, lewd fanservice, sexy/hot fanservice and so on, but with this anime it felt really "loose" type of women fanservice, not sure if s word is allowed in reviews thus the "loose" word. Anyhow, women were here hot, but not in a enjoyable way. They really felt loose type of hot, which was a huge turnoff. Ofcourse style of clothing was also pretty loose. Good for those who like breast, as this franchise offers lot of clothes being ripped and also western type of body types and clothes with "loose" vibe that they ooze with.

Anyhow, art was for most part good, fights were cool, could see lot of women, but style was simply not nice for me at all. Looseness regarding fanservice is worst type of fanservice for me.

✦Character
There are a lot of characters in this franchise. Some are good, some are okay, some literally annoy the hell out of me. Lot of s...."loose" type of women as well and plenty of rapists on both gender sides... But development and the links between all of the characters nevertheless left off a good impression.

✦Enjoyment & Overall

It's been like 7 years since I watched last "Ikki Tousen" , score'wise it seems that I used to enjoy it more than now. But yeah the obvious things that I pointed out that I disliked and big factor for it. I did like the fights and plenty of chicks. But yeah, biggest downside which miracously didn't lower score that much was the whole thematic of "looseness" that anime simply oozed of.. was absolutely a biggest turnoff of this anime.

Feel like this was more of a personal view rant, but ehm that what reviews basically are. Each viewer creates their own point of view and dislikes&likes regarding what is being "reviewed" . Mine simply changes its shape now and then. Feedback is welcome on my blog where review system is being explained.

To sum it all up. Ikkitousen is a good franchise, if you don't like fanservice, that I do not recommend to watch this at all as it's one of the pinnacle of annoying fanservice anime. (for me), but if you like any sorts of fanservice and on top of the this type of "looseness" style, then its your Anime. As well if you want to watch for most part cool martial arts fight sequences, then it's as well your anime.